Validated

In this episode, Austin chats with David and Daniil Liberman of Gonka about the case for using crypto to build a permissionless, meritocratic AI compute network focused on inference rather than decentralized training. They argue that centralized AI infrastructure is rapidly concentrating both revenue and compute, and contrast Bitcoin’s immutable, open rules with corporate systems whose promises can change. With Bitcoin as their north star, Gonka’s protocol aims to verify inference outputs and validate the underlying hardware to guard against fraud, censorship, and model substitution, using proof-of-work-like measurements of real, always-on hardware rather than proof-of-stake incentives. 00:00 - Why Crypto for AI 03:10 - Inference Over Training 05:02 - Bitcoin as Compute Incentives 07:21 - OpenRouter Critiques  11:36 - Open Source and Safety 18:51 - How Gonka Works 20:14 - Verifiable Inference Proof 24:22 - Privacy and Encryption 29:07 - Decentralized Training Roadmap 34:16 - Keeping Frontier Labs Honest 42:44 - More on Why Bitcoin Provides an Ideal Compute Model 44:23 - Where to Learn More Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

In this episode, Austin chats with Declan from Aurora Labs about building on NEAR’s Intents architecture. Declan explains why intents go beyond “a better bridge UI" and how Aurora Intents actually work, enabling one-click cross-chain journeys. They discuss how the protocol helps create liquidity, adoption metrics (over $21B lifetime volume, about $1B monthly), and use cases across wallets, neobanks, payments, RWAs, and more. The conversation also explores inherent cross-chain risks, as highlighted by a Litecoin reorg double-spend incident, and the need for insurance-like protections for onchain products.  0:00 - Aurora Intents Overview  02:57 - Intents vs Bridges  05:21- Solver Network Explained  06:23 - Aurora Intents’ Behind the Scenes Flow  07:43 - Liquidity and Market Making  08:55 - Real World Use Cases  11:25 - Confidential Intents  16:11 - Intents’ Speed Tradeoffs and Risks  17:30 - Litecoin Incident Earlier This Year  19:51 - Liability and Insurance  26:08 - Future Verticals for Intents  28:36 - Where to Learn More Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

In this episode, Austin and Tori join David Hoffman (Bankless) to talk about "anything but crypto." Their conversation spans longevity and mind-uploading, the challenges of changing opinions in public, and how modern media incentives distort nuanced ideas. They also discuss social media, the future of long-form content, AI risk and alignment, what it means to “win” the AI race, regulatory uncertainty, and ... yes, David's ideas around fitness.  00:00 - Welcome and intro  01:46 - How Do You Want to Live?  06:17 - Changing Your Mind as a Public Figure  09:35 - Media Distortion Effects  14:34 - Quality of Content vs Virality  16:33 - Yudkowsky and AI Doom  24:58 - Base Models' Values  27:55 - China and AI's Moral Core  30:01 - What Winning the AI Race Means  36:46 - Why CLARITY Stalled  41:47 - Hypertrophy and Longevity  44:23 - Conclusion Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

And now for something (almost) completely different.  Welcome to Out of Scope, a new sub-series where Austin and Tori Pastore (aka Birb Bernake) riff with guests on hot takes from the frontiers of tech, finance, policy, and whatever else is the flavor of the week In this debut episode, they sit down with Austin Campbell to discuss... quite a few things: running stablecoin reserves, repealing the 17th Amendment, why banks resemble cartels, insider trading, market structure, why regulators should be paid more and held to higher standards, modernizing the BSA, and—most importantly—a definitive ranking of video conferencing tools. 00:00 - Introducing Tori  01:24 - Chinese Peptides Explained  02:45 - GLP 1 Hype Cycle  05:40 - Peptides and Food Science  10:49 - Enter Austin Campbell  16:11- Stablecoin Reserve Rules  20:35 - Gold Doom Scenarios  22:59 - Banks' Payment Monopoly  34:38 - AI Lobbying and EA critiques  38:20 - Prediction Markets Incentives  43:59 - Fixing Regulator Accountability  47:39 - Prediction Markets  48:47 - Market Manipulation Debate  59:54 - Perps Versus Futures  01:02:51 - Assassination Markets Debate  01:06:21 - Austin's Magic Wand Reforms  01:10:40 - Blooper Reel Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

In this episode, Austin chats with Mert about why privacy is becoming essential for crypto and on-chain finance. They discuss how ZK-based privacy works via shielded pools, commitments, proofs, and nullifiers, contrasting it with Monero’s probabilistic obfuscation. Mert explains Zcash’s renewed adoption through improved usability, macro and regulatory shifts, and fairer historical distribution. He argues privacy layers fail when they lack tangible benefits, and outlines a new fully on-chain, composable, atomic privacy protocol for Solana built with Light Protocol’s compression approach, including permissionless and enterprise “zones” with configurable compliance features and reduced MEV via encrypted swaps.  00:00 - Why Privacy Matters  03:05 - Zcash And ZK Origins  06:26 - How Shielded Pools Work  09:56 - Why Zcash Broke Out  15:52 - Why Privacy Layers Fail  19:47 - Solana Privacy Protocol  22:57 - Composability Breakthrough  25:51 - Go-To-Market Plan  30:50 - Compliance And Zones  32:40 - Onchain Versus Off Chain  34:58 - Zcash And Solana’s Future  40:29 - Bitcoin Privacy And Quantum  43:48 - Closing And Where To Find Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.